This year’s E3: substance over style?and far from dead

This year's E3 Summit provided few instances of spectacle, but the games shown …

Industry professionals attending this year's E3 Summit may have first believed they were in the wrong place. The huge banner that used to cover the front of the Los Angeles Convention Center was gone, and one lone sign welcomed journalists as we walked into the show. No advertisements for games, no hype for the gaming consoles, no music. If last year's E3 was smaller than we expected, this year's Summit felt almost sedated: unless you were in a meeting room, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in a large meeting for accountants perhaps, or insurance salesmen.

Does the dramatically reduced size mean E3 is dead? We don't believe so. Frank and I covered the show from Sunday through Thursday and were able to get our hands on some of the biggest upcoming games, as well as speak to many of the minds behind those games. The press conferences from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo showed the world what each company's strategy would be moving into the holidays and beyond.

Each meeting was crammed with writers for every gaming blog, large and small, as well as mainstream publications. Press junkets are nice, but E3 is still the most efficient way to get the most games into the hands of most writers. While the invite-only format gives the ESA control over who does and doesn't go, it was refreshing to see so many writers from even obscure publications: it didn't feel like anyone was locked out this year.

There might have been some companies that dropped out of the "official" show, and some definitely knew how to take advantage of the format more than others, but banners and booth babes aren't what make a good show: most writers still were excited by what they saw and got to play. E3 may still has something of an identity problem, but the show remains lively and vibrant; you just had to know where to find the action. Here are some highlights from our coverage.

Quiet but more focused, this year's E3 was great for coverage but not for spectacle.

The press conferences

Microsoft kicked off the show, and showed a number of solid games to begin things. While the big announcement of the system's UI revamp may have drawn laughs and derision from attendees due to the Microsoft's blatant borrowing from the Mii design, the announcement of Netflix support more than made up for it. Microsoft may also have enjoyed giving us the biggest surprise of the show: Final Fantasy XIII is coming to the Xbox 360 in America. The game is a PS3 exclusive no longer.

The games

No matter where we went or who we were with, everyone wanted to know if we had seen Fallout 3. Yes, we saw it. Yes, it looks amazing. Yes, all the hype is justified. Our nearly hour-long play through of the nuclear wasteland left us wanting more and impressed at what we had seen.

While some seem to almost root for the death of E3, the truth is that while the show was outwardly boring, the meetings were interesting looks at the games we'll be playing in the future. The Summit was filled with gaming celebrities both great and obscure, and news poured out of the meetings and demos. E3 may be more low-key, but it's far from dead.

Some may like having PR people scream in their ear about their games because it's impossible to be heard over the thundering music, and others may wish to remove actual gaming personalities in order to make room for scantily-clad ladies, but E3 was all business this year, and it's clear from all the great gaming content we saw that business is good.